


There's no place like home

by ferggirl



Category: Graceland (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferggirl/pseuds/ferggirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season 1. Mike gets pulled back to Graceland for the Holidays, and finds it just as complicated and wonderful as he remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bette](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bette/gifts).



Mike Warren was a busy man.

He had seven open cases, an upcoming presentation to the NSA on join task forces, and a speech to recruits to plan for the second week in January.

So why was he sitting at his desk, looking up flights to California?

His bosses had pushed him to take some holiday leave and he’d resisted, citing workload and a general lack of festive spirit.

But then the phone calls had started.

“Hey Mike,” Briggs had said, just after Thanksgiving. “I haven’t told anyone else this…”

“Paul,” he’d interrupted, surprise in his voice. “I’m 3000 miles away. I’m not the rookie who guards your secrets anymore.”

“Oh I know,” Briggs had laughed, an edge to his voice. “But I thought this one might interest you.”

A week later, after Mike had spent a few nights tossing and turning before texting Briggs that he just couldn’t take the time off, he’d gotten a call from Charlie.

“How are you, Mikey?” Her voice had been warm and welcome. “It’s been too long.”

“It sure has, Charlie,” he said. He meant it. “How’s the sunny west coast? How are you?”

“Sunny and west,” she said dismissively. “I’m hanging in there. Almost quit. Didn’t. But we miss you, kid. My friend Betty says you’re hot stuff in DC right now.”

“Betty?” he searched his memory and located a senior agent with a hard smile and a solid record. “Well I’ll take that. She’s a good agent.”

“She is,” he could hear Charlie smile. “But listen, I just – I wanted to ask a little favor.”

His face fell, but he waited for her to continue.

“It’s just… you know how we left it with Odin Rossi? And I know – I know it got messy toward the end, and I was so wrong, but it doesn’t sit right that we all just let that go. I think Paul agrees, I think he’s working the case, but he won’t tell me.”

“Charlie…”

“I don’t want you to do anything,” she hurried to say. “But can you just – can you tell me if it’s an open case? Everyone at Graceland seems to think that bringing it up is going to make me start shooting up again, but I owe it to… well, you understand.”

“I’ll try,” he said after a pause. “I might not have access.”

“I know, Mikey,” she said with a sigh of relief. “That’s all I’m asking. Just try.”

He had tried. He’d logged into the system the next day, and put in a request for a follow up on his first case.

And he’d been denied.

That had bothered him.

He’d emailed Charlie an apology and a promise for another phone call, sometime, when they were both free.

He hadn’t been that surprised when his phone rang again, the second week of December. It was a cold night, and he was walking home from a holiday party. The wind almost stole the sound of the ringer, but when he glanced at the screen, he couldn’t help the smile that came to his face.

“Johnny!”

“Big-shot Mike! Oh, hang on…” There was a loud hum of voices behind him, and Mike could hear a woman talking low and fast, but he couldn’t make out the words. He shook his head and kept walking, waiting out the negotiations.

“Ok, well, Paige says we should go outside, so here we go,” Johnny said finally. “Say hi, Paige!”

“Hey, Mike,” she said. Mike thought she sounded tense, or exasperated, or maybe he was just reading into it, worrying about what she thought of him after all that had happened.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this speakerphone call?”

“A man can’t call his DC man just to say hi?”

“Shut up, Johnny.” Ok, now she sounded exasperated.

“I’d believe it more if you weren’t the third and fourth members of Graceland to hit me up in the last two weeks.”

“I told you,” Paige muttered.

“Shit, really?” Johnny said. “Damn, I knew Briggs was holding out on us again.”

“He didn’t know,” Paige said. “In fact he was just arguing against that very suggestion when I told him we should just ask.”

“Guys,” Mike said, glancing around the empty street as he turned into Logan Circle. “Is there a question hidden in there somewhere?”

“What’s going on with Briggs and Charlie?” Mike had only heard Johnny sound that serious once or twice.

“Should we be worried?” Paige added crisply.

Mike leaned his head against the outer door to his apartment and just took a few breaths. For a moment it all came rushing back – the stress of hiding his assignment from them, the real affection he had for every member of that house, the way he’d fallen asleep worried about them for weeks after leaving.

Not to mention the feeling that he had left his case unfinished.

Then he straightened, unlocking his door and shrugging out of his coat. He sank onto the couch and rubbed his head.

“Worried? When are you not worried about Charlie and Briggs?” he stalled.

There was silence on the other end, and he smiled reluctantly at the confirmation that they knew his tactics as well as he knew theirs.

“I don’t know,” he said finally. “Charlie’s still pretty torn up. I tried to check into it for her, but I’m blocked out.”

“And Briggs?” Paige asked.

“Briggs…” Mike sighed. “Briggs always has his own agenda, right?”

“Aw, now I know he’s holding out on us. Why you gotta be like that, Mikey?”

“It’s not – have you guys just asked them?”

The two laughed. “Asked? About heroin and Odin and you and Jangles?” Paige scoffed.

“No one’s talking, man,” Johnny said.

“Look, I’m sorry guys.” He grimaced at his patchy carpet. “If I thought there was anything to it, I’d tell you, I promise.”

“Yeah, ok,” Johnny said bitterly. “He’s gonna big-shot us now.”

Mike could hear the impact when Paige hit him. “We get it, Mike. Thanks. Have a Merry Christmas.”

“Take care of yourselves.”

“Yeah.”

“We will.”

That had been a week ago.  He’d thrown himself into his work, closed three cases, met up with friends from Quantico and generally kept busy enough to keep from thinking about it.

But tonight he’d come back to his desk to find a file waiting for him.

It was labeled “Graceland” and held together with a rubber band. The sticky note on it read _Saw your request was denied. Charlie’s a friend. You have two hours. – B_

He’d read it. Of course he’d read it.

And now he was looking at flights. Because that file confirmed what Briggs had hinted at and Charlie feared.

Odin was a threat. Graceland was the target. And the FBI was burying the case.


	2. Chapter 2

Mike got to LAX at sunset. Walking through the doors to the cab line, he breathed in the warm, dry air of southern California and smiled. 80 degrees. Ho ho ho.

He’d packed light and been vague about his plans to his colleagues. Betty’s generosity had given him the basic information, but what he didn’t have was the insight he’d get from observing the house. Who knew what? Was there a weak link? Was there a traitor?

Once he would have said he knew the story at Graceland. But the way things had happened… well it had left him questioning everything he thought he’d known.

He had the cabbie drop him a few blocks away, at the public lot for the beach, and pulled his shoes off. He hadn’t felt his toes in the sand in far too long.

A few things had occurred to him on the plane. The first being that he probably should have warned someone he was coming.

After all, he didn’t have a key to the house anymore. He wasn’t sure how visiting worked – he’d never seen anyone attempt it after he’d arrived.

The rest had revolved around the complex web of truth and deception that was falling into place with each step he took toward Graceland.

And somehow Briggs was at the center of it again.

The tide was out, and the sun was low in the sky when he stopped in front of the house. For a moment, he just caught his breath. He hadn’t expected it to feel so much like coming home.

He was contemplating who to call first when a voice rang out across the sand.

“Are you fucking shitting me?”

“Johnny!” He dropped his bag and tensed for impact. The wiry agent barreled into him, pulling him into a headlock and shaking him around a bit before pulling back.

“What the hell are you doing here, Mikey? The suits get tired of your lackadaisical attitude?”

“They thought I needed a little sun,” Mike grinned. “Said I was looking pasty.”

“How long you in town? We gotta hit the hot spots! You staying someplace swanky?” Johnny’s eyes fell to the bag in the sand and then took in the wrinkled travel clothes on his back. “Oooh, came crawling back, did you?”

“You guys never filled my room,” Mike said hopefully. “Thought I could save on hotel costs.”

Johnny grinned and grabbed his bag, heading up the beach toward the house. “Mi casa and all that.”

Mike scrambled to keep up. “So who’s here? Everyone leave for holiday stuff?”

“Nah. Graceland’s a bit of a life sentence. You’re in until you’re out, you know? Can’t risk being out of town if something heats up.”

“You got anything heating up?”

Johnny shook the doorknob and pulled his key out, glaring at it. “Damn thing keeps sticking. Gotta get a new one, but _that’s_ stuck in the red tape.” He pounded on the door. “Hey, yo, Briggs! You in there?”

He peered through the glass and saw something that had him rocking back on his heels, satisfied. “Not too much,” he finally answered. “The, uh, thing we called you about hasn’t gone anywhere. Everyone’s still weird as shit though.”

The door swung open and Paul Briggs stood outlined in the light from the kitchen. “Goddammit, Johnny, that key’s a safety risk and we all know it.”

“Yeah, yeah, well you tell the bureau yourself. They ain’t too worried about me and my key,” Johnny muttered, swinging Mike’s suitcase in front of him to push past Briggs. “Now let our guest in.”

Briggs looked behind Johnny for the first time, and Mike was gratified to see his eyes widen in genuine shock. “Mike? What the hell, man?”

“Wound up with a bit of time, thought I could use the sound of the ocean and this motley crew for a few days. If that’s ok with you.”

Briggs hesitated for a fraction of a second, but then a smile bloomed on his face and he reached out to pull Mike in for a hug and a slap on the back. “It’s good to see you, kid. You picked a good night.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Since Charlie’s going full out for Christmas dinner,” Johnny yelled down the stairs, “she lets us order in the week before.”

“Pizza tonight,” Briggs said. “Best in LA.”

******

It was just the three of them. Jakes was undercover, a week-long stint with the Jamaican crew he’d been working for a year. Paige and Charlie were on a buy, but a classy enough one that they had planned to go Christmas shopping after. Johnny offered to let them know he was here and give them a chance to change their plans, but Mike talked him out of it. Much as he wanted to see them, he wasn’t quite ready to face Charlie’s inevitable questions.

The pizza was straight California style – loaded with artichokes and artisan cheese and crispy thin crust. Mike was on his third slice before conversation started back up.

“So how long you staying?” Briggs asked, cracking open a beer and leaning back into the couch. “Charlie will kill you if you don’t make Christmas dinner.”

“Well at least till Christmas dinner, then,” Mike said easily. “I’ve got the time built up. It’ll be a nice break.”

Johnny raised an eyebrow. “Off the clock? No Mike Warren internal affairs spectacular this time around?”

Mike threw a pillow at him, but Johnny batted it away.

“Off the clock. Just here to surf and eat.”

“And we all know you’re shit at surfing,” Briggs said with a contemplative smile.

“Hey, I’m decent enough now,” he said with a shrug. “What about you guys? Holidays busy or quiet in Graceland?”

He felt Johnny’s slight tension from across the room and sighed internally. For such a good agent, he was so bad at hiding his thoughts from the house.

“Johnny’s just kicking around,” Briggs said after another swig of his beer. “We closed a case a few weeks ago, right? The Gonzalez thing. He’s been stuck on paperwork ever since.”

“Yeah, and don’t think I haven’t noticed that you landed me with all of that shit.” Johnny shook his head.

“What about you? Anything new come up since? You gonna be around?”

“Yeah, you’ll see me,” Briggs said. “I got a couple of loose ends, always trying to shake the tree, you know how it is.”

Mike nodded, wondering just which loose ends Briggs was talking about and how to get Johnny out of the room so he could ask. They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes. When Briggs got up to wash his plate, Mike jumped up and grabbed his suitcase.

“I’ll just run this upstairs – same room ok?”

“Yeah man, you know where the extra sheets are.” Johnny settled into the couch and clicked on the television.

With the water and the TV noise as cover, Mike murmured to Briggs as he passed, “If you wanted to update me on… what we discussed, I’m all ears.”

He didn’t wait for an answer or acknowledgment. Briggs would find him if he wanted to talk.

It didn’t take long.

He was tucking in his sheets, military corners neatly creased, when Briggs stopped in the doorway.

“It’s been strange, having an empty room,” he commented, looking around at the bare walls. “Not that you ever really decorated.”

“Can’t say I’ve done much more in DC,” Mike said with a shrug.

“You like it out there? It’s a hard town, sometimes.”

“I mean, the surfing’s not as good, but the work’s ok.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Mike finished the top sheet and stood, raising an eyebrow but waiting on Briggs to speak.

“Listen, Mike,” he said at last. “I hope you didn’t come all the way out here because I… I mean, I still don’t have any solid leads.”

“But you are still working it?”

“God yes, of course I am, I need to do this for Charlie, at least. She’s still so torn up about Whistler.”

Mike grimaced. He’d heard that pain in her voice when she called. But Charlie didn’t want anyone to do this for her. She wanted to do it herself. Briggs had to know that.

“Why not bring her in?”

“She’s fragile, you know? Still jumpy. I don’t want her fixating and losing focus.”

“Charlie’s a grown woman, Briggs.”

“You think I don’t know that?” He took a few steps into the room. “She’s a grown woman, she’s one of my only friends, and she damn near quit the agency last summer because she lost a CI. Hell, she thought I was the one screwing everyone over! I’m not gonna start her back down that path.”

Mike was silent.

“Anyway, Mike, don’t worry about it. If something pops, I’ll call you. Just enjoy Christmas, man.”

He turned to leave, and Mike called out to stop him. “Briggs, wait. You really think Odin Rossi is back in LA? Why would he leave Ecuador now?”

“Hell if I know, Mike.” Briggs’ face was serious. “But I have a pretty big grudge against the guy.”

“Yeah,” Mike said unnecessarily. “Yeah, so do I.” 


	3. Chapter 3

He woke the next morning to a pillow in the face.

“Hey asshole,” Charlie grinned. “You don’t write, you don’t call, you just show up on my doorstep.”

He blearily rubbed his eyes, groping for his watch. “What time is it?”

“Six. But for you that’s nine, so you’ve got no excuse.” He groaned, but took the pants she handed him. “Johnny says you’re staying?”

“I hear someone’s cooking a big dinner,” he said sleepily. “Wouldn’t want to miss that.”

“Damn straight.” She winked as she walked to the door. “Johnny’s making pancakes. You and I will talk later. It’s good to have you home, Mike.”

Home. It felt like home. Rolling out of bed and padding to the shower, grabbing a towel off that communal shelf and avoiding all the shampoo on the side of the tub – it all felt like home.

He still turned the wrong way in his DC apartment when he got up in the morning.

Paige was coming up the stairs when he left the bathroom, looking like she’d just been out for a run. She smiled when she saw him.

“Now there’s a face I didn’t think I’d see again so soon. How are you, Mike?”

“Charlie promised pancakes, so I’ll make it, I think.” He took a step toward her, contemplating a hug, but she laughed and danced away.

“I’m gross, don’t you dare.” She reached up and ruffled his hair instead. “Less DC, more LA. See you down there.”

“Yeah.” He watched her go with a smile, then shook himself and headed down toward the voices below. Even though his fingers twitched to fix it, he left his hair messy.

Relax, Warren. More LA, less DC.

“He lives!” Johnny crowed from his station behind the stove. “Mikey! Charlie was pretty sure you were going to just go back to sleep the minute she left. What’s your pleasure? We’re doing winter themes today.” He nodded at the plate of finished pancakes, where there were snowmen, reindeer, and snowflakes piled up.

“I don’t see any Christmas trees, Johnny,” Mike said, swiping a snowman and leaning against the counter. “Seems like an oversight.”

“One that will be immediately corrected.” He set to his task with enthusiasm, and Mike looked around the room with a sudden thought.

“Not much for decorating, huh? Not even a strand of lights!”

“Shut your face,” Johnny warned.

“I think he just volunteered,” Briggs said with a nudge of Charlie’s shoulder.

“Uh oh, what did I volunteer for?” Mike accepted his tree-shaped pancake and pulled up a stool.

Briggs nodded at two large shopping bags leaning on the couch.

“Feel like doing a little decorating, Mikey?” Charlie said with a glint in her eye that meant there was only one answer acceptable.

So he shrugged good-naturedly. “I get to eat first, right?”

“You get to eat first.”

Paige joined them a few minutes later, and laughed when Charlie nodded to her. “It was that easy? Oh Mike, DC has made you soft.”

“He didn’t even ask what kind of decorating,” Johnny said with a shake of his head.

“To think he almost beat my scores,” Briggs said mockingly, “but completely failed to find out what he was agreeing to. Bought by some pancakes and a pretty smile.”

“Hey,” Charlie snapped teasingly. “I am much more than just a pretty smile. I’m a pretty face, a nice pair of legs, a very good butt…”

“And aim that will put a bullet right between the eyes,” Briggs agreed. “What green young agent could possibly resist?”

Mike watched the teasing banter and wondered, not for the first time, if his instincts could be that wrong. Maybe there was no Secret. No great lie being perpetuated in Graceland.

“So what is it that I volunteered for?” he asked during a break in the laughter.

“You,” Charlie said with a sparkle in her eyes, “are putting lights on our tree.”

Mike looked around. “I don’t see a tree.”

“This is LA. Not everyone gets a live fir tree here.” Paige was holding back a smile.

“Charlie likes to decorate outside,” Johnny said in explanation.

“Livens the beach up.” Briggs rolled his eyes.

“So you’re saying…” Mike glanced out at the palm tree swaying in the breeze.

“Yep.” “Yes.” “Good luck, buddy.”

Charlie just smiled.

******

It took the entire day, three breaks for food, and seven youtube instructional videos.

Johnny had offered to pull out the patched bouncy castle to cushion his fall. Mike had found a ladder in the basement, and talked Johnny into holding it steady in the sand. That had been a bit of a mistake.

“A little to the left, big shot!”

“Definitely not straight enough.”

“Oh, hang on a minute, I’m just gonna go make sure these ladies aren’t lost…”

And just like that, he was alone again.

Charlie came out a few minutes later, perched on the bottom rung of the ladder with a cup of tea in hand.

He was back on the ladder, wrapping the lights in circles around the slippery trunk when he looked down and caught her smile.

“Is this punishment because I didn’t call first?” he asked, a rueful smile on his face. “Or because I left in the first place?”

She hummed innocently, but waved him down from the ladder.

“I think that’s good enough. Here, I ran an extension cord out.”

They plugged it in, and the mess of white and colored lights was a travesty, a complete failure of any true decorating impulse. Charlie grinned.

“I love it.”

“Well, good, because you’re never getting it down. I’m sure as hell not going back up there.”

He picked up the ladder and she slid a friendly arm around his waist. He hugged her back.

“Forgiven?”

“Not by a long shot,” she said tartly. “You left us!”

“Charlie…”

“Yeah, I know, greater ambitions and all that.”

“No listen,” he paused on the porch, setting the ladder down for a minute and glancing over his shoulder at the mostly empty beach. “Charlie, I got some more information.”

Her shoulders tensed immediately. “Tell me.”

“It’s not much. Honestly, I’m still locked out,” he said with a sigh. “But I got a look in a file and… the FBI thinks he’s back.”

“Motherfucker.”

“I know.” They stood there in silence for a moment. “There’s no open investigation. It’s just flagged.”

“So, Briggs?”

“Who ever knows what Briggs is up to?” Mike smiled, but it was half-hearted.

“If you hear _anything_ …”

“You’re first in line, you know that,” he said seriously. “I get it, Charlie.”

“Ok, ok.” She shook herself, straightening up and giving him a peck on the cheek that he didn’t feel he deserved. “Come on, Paige got egg nog and I swiped some of DJ’s nice brandy.”

“Is that a good idea?” He tried to picture Jakes being ok with discovering something missing from his room.

“God, no,” she said. “But I’ll just get Briggs to take the fall. Those two are thick as thieves lately.”

******

It was easy to fall back into the routine of the house. Cases were slower during the holidays, despite the warnings from HQ to stay alert and man the phones. Even criminals liked to open presents.

So it was an easy couple of days. Mike surfed, watched TV, ran on the beach, played sous chef when Charlie needed it, and just soaked in the sense of family.

Jakes came back on Christmas Eve, dirty and cranky and not in the mood for egg nog and Johnny’s off-key Christmas carols.

He smiled at Mike and said “Levi,” but didn’t offer a hand or a hug.

Briggs watched him trudge up the stairs to his room, and said, “He’s had a hard year.”

Johnny muttered something about making it harder, and Paige hit him with the remote control.

Charlie had drafted Briggs into chopping onions to test his vaunted invincibility to tears, and Mike settled in next to Johnny and Paige on the couch. They were watching the Rudolph special, old stop-motion effects and cheesy songs and everything.

“So when do you think Jakes notices the brandy?” Mike asked, reaching for the pretzels on the coffee table.

“Not my problem,” Paige said, “thankfully.”

The other reindeer were picking on Rudolph, and his shiny red nose faded in sadness. Mike was more relaxed than he’d been in weeks.

“What if it’s him?” Johnny’s question was quiet, barely audible over the chatter from the kitchen and the soundtrack from the TV.

“Have you never seen this, Johnny?” Paige laughed. “It’s most definitely Rudolph who saves Christmas.”

Mike smiled, but he was pretty sure Johnny hadn’t been talking about the TV show.

“Naw, man, I mean DJ. He’s been weird as shit since the whole thing went down. And we know he was helping Briggs.”

“He said he didn’t know,” Paige reminded them under her breath.

“We lie for a living,” Johnny retorted. “Did anyone really look into him that week?”

“I looked into everyone,” Mike said softly, “but not as hard as I looked at Briggs.”

“I’m just saying. Dude’s an asshole on his good days, but lately there haven’t been any.”

They all munched in contemplative silence for a few more minutes, and then Charlie and Briggs came out to join them and Jakes came down and they dropped it.

But Mike wondered.

He made a point of seeking Jakes out before bed that night.

“Hey, man,” he said, ducking out onto the porch where Jakes had taken his whiskey for some peace and quiet. “Not in much of a holiday mood?”

“Nah, not much.”

They turned and looked out at the ocean, letting the waves cover the lapse in conversation while Mike searched for the right thing to say.

“I’m a little surprised you’re still here,” he said at last. “I got the feeling that you were over the whole house-togetherness thing.”

“I’m not gonna go skipping down the beach and buying presents and shit,” Jakes said with a nod, “but it’s my house too, man.”

“Yeah, I just thought-”

“Oh, you thought a lot of shit, didn’t you?” Jakes turned to glare at him. “You thought you could just drop in here and lie to our faces. You thought you knew better, you knew more just because of some damn test and a pat on the back from a bigwig. You thought it might be fun to pull those people apart and then leave them to pick up the pieces, huh?”

Mike swallowed.

Briggs stepped out onto the porch just as Jakes tipped back his glass, downing the last of his liquor.

“You fucking thought. That’s the whole damn problem, isn’t it?”

“What’s going on out here?” Briggs’ smile was slightly uneasy, his beer rolling back and forth in his hands. “You two getting along?”

“We’re fine,” Mike hurried to assure them. “At least, I’m fine.”

Briggs and Jakes stared each other down for a moment, then Jakes shrugged and moved toward the door.

“Sure, we’re all fucking fine.”


	4. Chapter 4

Mike got a call an hour before Charlie was set to serve the ham. There’d been a development in the suspected smugglers’ compound just outside of New Orleans. It was a case the deputy director was very concerned with, and Mike had been running point on briefs and strategy.

His flight would leave in 90 minutes. He was not to miss it.

Charlie’s face fell the minute he walked back into the room. Then she grabbed a Tupperware container and started dishing him all the side dishes she had ready.

“Sorry to run out,” he said to the rest of the crew, who’d muted the TV when Charlie left the room.

“It’s the job,” Briggs said understandingly.

“It’s been nice to see you,” Paige said. Her eyes flicked to the kitchen, and Charlie’s back where she was filling the container.

“Shit man, you gotta come back again,” Johnny said with a smile. “The place isn’t the same without you.”

Jakes just smiled at him ironically, raised his beer, and turned back to the game on TV.

“Here you go, Mike,” Charlie said, putting the container on the coffee table. “Hot and ready to eat. Don’t you dare leave without it.”

She looked around the group and threw up her hands. “Well, who’s driving him? We’re not making Mikey take a cab.”

“Yeah, I’ll drop you,” Briggs said easily. He rubbed a hand down Charlie’s arm and she quieted, her restless movements stilling. “You better go get your stuff, Mike.”

It didn’t take long. He’d packed light, and even if he wound up with a few wrapped packages (that Johnny and Charlie swore would not set off the xray machines) it still zipped easily.

He got hugs from Paige and Charlie, but Johnny shook his head.

“Nah man, not till we drop you.”

“We?”

“I’m gonna come keep Briggs company. Hell, it’s Christmas.”

Food in hand, they piled into the jeep. Mike spent most of the ride eating, since both men threatened to tell Charlie if he didn’t.

“Big case?” Briggs asked.

“Smugglers in the bayou.” That was public knowledge. He couldn’t share any specifics, of course. They didn’t have the clearance.

“If you make it down there, you say hi to Bourbon Street for me,” Johnny winked.

Then they were there, the terminal in front of them. Mike’s throat caught and he covered it with a cough.

“You choke on one of Charlie’s potatoes we’re all gonna lie and say you were taken down by a boy scout,” Briggs warned.

Johnny ducked inside to check his gate, and Mike finished the last scoop of green beans in his container.

“Sorry to leave?” Briggs asked, watching his face.

“Sure,” Mike said. And he was. More than he’d expected to be. Not just because there was something here, something that wasn’t right, something he wanted to fix, to solve.

He would miss them. All of them.

“Well, you’re back in your suit tomorrow.”

“I do look good in a suit,” Mike grinned.

“Maybe I’ll come east,” Johnny said, jogging back from the departures display. “We can suit up and hit the town. You’re 13A.”

“Yeah,” Mike said, patting him on the back. “You do that.”

He wouldn’t, though. They all knew that. Graceland didn’t do vacations.

They hugged, quick and awkwardly. Then Briggs handed him his suitcase, and Johnny sighed.

“Time to go home, big-shot.”

******

It had snowed. DC was a festive white, with lights on the houses and quiet holiday streets as he rode back into the city, heading for the office and his top-priority case.

It was everything he’d always wanted from Christmas.

3000 miles away, he knew Jakes was finally figuring out whose brandy they’d all been drinking. Charlie was putting leftovers away, and Johnny was starting a new round of caroling. Paige was probably helping Briggs do the dishes, and the air was warm and the ocean was calm.

He managed a smile when he got to the office, said “Happy Holidays” to the others on the task force, and got to work.

When he finally went home the next day, he opened those two red and green packages. One was a bobble-head style surfer, in the middle of wiping out. Johnny had written “Mike Warren” on the base in black sharpie. The other was a photo, with a simple wooden frame. Mike recognized it – it was from his last night at Graceland. They’d all gone out for a bonfire and Charlie had made them pose while she fought with her camera’s self-timer.

He set them on his dresser, next to his grandfather’s crime-scene photo, and felt that much closer to California, to Graceland, to home.

It took him another month to put in for the transfer.


End file.
